Professor Nick Spencer, former president of the Australasian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association.

This follows the National Health and Medical Research Council awarding $526 million for research across Australia, with Flinders University receiving more than $5.9 million in eight direct project grants, and lending support to a further two projects.

Professor Nicholas Spencer has secured funding to lead two projects to find the cause and cure for abdominal gut pain.

“There is a desperate need for alternative therapies or techniques to suppress chronic pain instead of using opioids for pain relief,” says lead investigator Professor Spencer, from the Flinders College of Medicine and Public Health.

“OurVisceral Neurophysiology Laboratoryteam is using a novel approach known as optogenetics – the use of light to control cells in living tissue – to target the sensory nerve cells in the intestines. We’re finding new ways to use light to manage chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and constipation without the negative side-effects of regular treatments.”

Flinders Associate Professor David Lynn leads then EMBL Australia computational and systems biology group in Adelaide.

New research into whether antibiotic exposure in early life can impair immune responses to infant vaccinations, led by Flinders Associate Professor David Lynn, will move to human trials after new published preclinical work showed that this is the case in mice.

Professor Lynn says effective vaccine responses are essential to childhood and community health globally, and the data in mice suggests that antibiotics could compromise the microbes that may support optimal immune responses to vaccines.

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“We will investigate how the collection of microbes in the infant intestine – the gut microbiota – can influence vaccine responses in infants,” says Professor Lynn, who is based at Flinders and the SA Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

Personalised detection of bowel cancer, and a promising new method to more effectively deliver drugs with fewer side effects are among other key projects to be funded.

“The latest round ofNHMRC project grantshighlights Flinders University’s long-running research strengths in producing more effective and safe drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests for major diseases including cancer, diabetes, and even obesity,” says Flinders University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Robert Saint.

“The funding is vital to deliver outcomes urgently needed for better treatments and health in both advanced and developing countries.

“It has been an outstanding year for major federal research funding at Flinders, and the latest grants will help guarantee real-world outcomes from the world-class research efforts at Flinders University.”

Other Flinders University College of Medicine and Public Health scientists,Professor Judith Dwyer andProfessor Briony Forbes, are co-collaborators in two other major projects respectively led by the University of SA and Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne.

Cancer and cell division researcher Associate Professor Janni Petersen, recently named as a new entrant to the ARC College of Experts.

The latest round of NHMRC funding includes $86 million for cancer research, more than $61 million for cardiovascular disease investigations, more than $41 million for mental health research, $29 million for diabetes research and $28 million for obesity research.